davis_square | "Oath Craft Pizza" proposed to replace Singer sewing machine store

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"Oath Craft Pizza" proposed to replace Singer sewing machine store

As reported earlier, the Singer sewing machine shop at the corner of Elm and Day streets is moving to West Cambridge. The new prospective tenant is a 16-seat superfast-order restaurant called Oath Craft Pizza.

Here are the submitted plan and the city planning staff report. (Though I see only 13 seats in the diagram.)

From the planning report: "This pizza establishment is providing a different kind of experience by using super-efficient ovens to cook craft pizza in 90 seconds. "

They currently have two locations, Nantucket and South Station, but want to grow into a real chain.

Oath Craft Pizza Has Aggressive Growth Plans for Boston, Starting With South Station (Eater.com, 8/11/15)

The smallest pizzeria ever is opening in South Station (Boston Business Journal, 10/22/15)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

jlauspitz, you are hurting Davis Square. You were one of the people who fought against Tenoch with a litany of ridiculous complaints, which helped push the opening date of that restaurant off by 6 months. Now it is FINALLY open and just as awesome and popular as expected.

Here you are again with another list of silly grievances, including the most bizarre complaint I've seen from you yet -paranoia about an army of cars circling Davis Square waiting for their pizza. Come on, man. That doesn't even make sense. If you are even driving, you have to park your car to pick up your pizza at some point, and I know of nowhere that has less than a 90 second parking time limit.

Now you are also proposing a purity test regarding community service and charitable contributions. That tells me that you are more interested in establishing a cultish utopia than services that the community wants. And what in the holy hell does a tiny pizza place have to do with "affordable housing?" This is being turned into a meaningless buzzphrase that can be thrown out there by NIMBYs to gum up the works for literally anything.

We need to stop letting our processes be driven by kooks. The existing Oath Craft Pizzas seem to be well regarded. Let's get it opened as soon as possible. If the community doesn't like it, it will be closed soon enough.

Quite frankly, I don't even think it's possible to "circle" that area in any meaningful way. Foot traffic defines the kinds of food available in Davis Square, not car traffic. Oath's whole idea is to be a tiny pizza place that turns out super-fast high-quality pizzas. I haven't tried their stuff but the reviews of their other shops are very positive; I think it's great that they're looking at Davis for one of their first community shops. A tiny pizza place has nothing to do with establishing affordable housing, and hey, sure, community service, sounds great.

jlauspitz is theorizing that the city hasn't looked at Oath's menu, their service offerings, or their uniqueness compared to other pizza shops. That's both unfair and born out of paranoia.

You can make right turns from Day to Elm to Chester to Herbert and back to Day, yes. I doubt this happens too often but it's possible.

The actual car circle route while looking for parking or waiting to pick up a shopper is along Elm to a left on Grove left on Highland left on Elm along the slip.

"Teko": I'd be more careful about calling people paranoid on line. Some genuinely crazy person might take it amiss.

On the due diligence point: If the staff had systematically compared menus of Davis Square pizza purveyors they would surely have noted it in the public record, because (as you point out) it strengthens the case for their conditional* support of the Special Permit. They would appear to have relied instead on a news clip about Oath's South Station outlet that highlighted the ovens. Livejournal discussion has already gone beyond this.

[*One material condition is that Oath underwrite the cost of four parking meters as a parking/traffic mitigation measure. The meters must accept both coins and credit cards. They obviously have a good lawyer.]

And I would be equally careful about issuing vague threats on Davis Square Livejournal. Please don't do that.

no threat intended, but certainly a strong rebuke. I don't take kindly to being called a kook and paranoid by people who won't sign their names.

I'd like to request that everyone, especially keithn and teko and jlauspitz„ continue this discussion in a civil and noninflammatory style.

Edited 2016-01-21 00:29 (UTC)

Thank you.

Dyspeptic ad hominem outbursts seem to be gaining in fashion in the season of the Donald. One useful thing about face-to-face neighborhood meetings in New England is that they are generally more civil than the Internet, even on a well-moderated list like this one. And such meetings can achieve lasting results on a case by case basis in cooperation with the City and the business owners: the plaza itself is a large example but there are many, many small amenities as well.

For the record, I am neither a "kook" nor a "pain-in-the-ass" retiree, and did not favor or oppose Tenoch but did provide a checklist of topics to be addressed and an alert to past neighborhood concerns. These are not "grievances" which I harbor but, repeat, topics to be addressed, which they were in that case to the satisfaction of the licensing commission. Similarly, I do not favor or oppose the Oath project, but do want to be sure that the change of use procedures are followed diligently on a high visibility, high trafficked spot.

Again for the record, there are cars circling Davis looking for parking spaces all the time, and sometimes they drop off and pick up a spouse or roommate to run in for food or cash or stamps or whatever. As it happens, my wife and I, though we are both walkers, did this just last week for a pizza at Peppe Boca, and might well do the same on a rainy day at this new place if it makes a reasonable case for change of use, as required by law.

As for the affordable housing matter, I think it clear that my point was that the staff report addressed it "by contrast" to more site-specific topics, including those in OSPCD's own planning documents.

Have a nice day.

The

And one drawback of face-to-face meetings is preference falsification. I think spirited online discussions often allows people to really debate the heart of an issue. And to me, process is not the solution to a problem here. Process is the problem.

I don't want delays for endless community meetings and studies over something so trivial. I don't want what you call "due diligence." I want the pizza place. Let it open and succeed or fail. The worst that happens if you open this pizza place without a all the things you are asking for is... what, exactly?

We are getting to the point where nobody is going to be able to open anything in Davis Square due to having to hire lawyers, representatives, set up endless community meetings, pay for endless meaningless studies, apply for license after license, wait months on end, and appeal decisions repeatedly. Only people with deep pockets will be able to do it.

I'm sure you are a nice guy and mean well, but I really think you enjoy process for it's own sake.

Democratic process is essential for large developments such as 240 Elm Street (ex-Social Security building) or the once-proposed Day Street hotel. I find it less essential for a tiny storefront reuse such as this one.

1. What one cannot do very well on line is to negotiate a deal that is better for the City than the paltry four parking meters (not even new meters are specified) offered by the very able Oath lawyer (Richard di Girolamo) for traffic/parking mitigation. A better deal-- including, for example, the clean up measures undertaken by Dunkin Donuts-- will require the intervention of the Ward Alderman, after taking a neighborhood sounding. The question is not simply whether or not to welcome a new business but the terms on which this is done. This is why I noted that it will be an interesting test of Lance Davis, for whom I voted, to see whether he asks for a postponement in tomorrow's planning board hearing pending a neighborhood sounding, and why the failure of the planning staff to provide explicitly for a such a sounding is a significant omission for a flagship change of use location. At the very least, the Alderman and those living in the area should be given a chance to review the privately commissioned traffic and parking study.

2. On the larger philosophical issue of the relation between result-oriented and process-oriented thinking, a great deal depends on time and place. We live in a rule of law country that from its founding has institutionalized multiple levels of review, participation and reconsideration. It is also a country noted for its dynamism, innovation, adaptability and problem solving culture. So the question is always how to combine these. And there is formula applicable to all situations at all times.

3. Somerville, because it is so densely populated, is understandably more inclined to procedural issues-- permitting, licensing, regulation, citizen participation-- than, say, a strip mall in Texas where property owners can more easily dump the burden of their externalities into the wide open spaces. The somewhat funky character of Davis Square is the product of the interplay between market forces and citizen/City planning and review. It will achieve its full business potential with a re-zoning that invites citizen and aldermanic input. To its credit, OSPCD has undertaken this task.

Since Davis Square is home to many one-of-a-kind businesses and the burial for more chain outlets than Singer, it is not plausible to argue that the Somerville combination of the two modes of thought-- procedural and result/market-oriented-- has been inherently hostile to start-ups.

4. In the Oath case, the main externality, which is not trivial, is increasing the already serious bottleneck for pedestrians and cars at the junction of Day, Elm and Highland. Even with a virtually dormant Singer outlet, there is very often a car idling in the illegal space in front of that store while the driver runs out to make a quick purchase or pickup at one of the surrounding businesses or ATMs. This will obviolusly become a greater problem with a fast food store, and looking down the road a more serious consideration if the Mike's Plaza plan takes shape. Against this, must be balanced the revived use of a previously sleepy corner space-- indeed, a flagship space-- in Davis Square. I for one am not so smitten with the positive prospects as to think that the offer of four parking meters accepting coins and credit cards is sufficient to gloss over the obvious problems.

5. Tomorrow, we shall see whether Mr. Davis takes a role in this at the first public hearing.

"We are getting to the point where nobody is going to be able to open anything in Davis Square..."

Pointless, fevered hyperbole seems to be your thing (given your posting history) – what is up with that?
It certainly doesn't help any discussion (but I understand that it makes you feel good).

I have no stake in the "90 second" pizza place. I can think of worse things that could go there and I can think of better. But looking at the impact that it may have is called "due diligence". It is what adults do.

Edited 2016-01-20 05:53 (UTC)

"jlauspitz, you are hurting Davis Square."

Coming from you, that is priceless. Your position is... what? MORE BEER! MORE WHINE!

Give it a rest. Be civil.

No beer here. The applicant is not requesting a liquor license.

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"Oath Craft Pizza" proposed to replace Singer sewing machine store

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